id to myself, "He has defied the interests.
David has gone out against Goliath--but the Davids do not win nowadays.
I can elect Burbank."

But where was the elation that thought would have set to swelling in the
_me_ of less than two weeks before? And then I began clearly to see
that, for me at least, the prize, to be prized, must be fairly won from
start to goal; and to be enjoyed, must gladden eyes that would in turn
gladden me with the approval and sympathy which only a woman can give
and without which a man is alone and indeed forlorn.

XX

PILGRIMS AND PATRIOTS

From St. Louis I went direct to Burbank.

His heart had been set upon a grand speech-making tour. He was fond of
wandering about, showing himself to cheering crowds; and he had a deep,
and by no means unwarranted, confidence in his platform magnetism. At
first I had been inclined to give him his way. But the more I considered
the matter, the stronger seemed to become the force of the
objections--it takes a far bigger man than was Burbank at that stage of
his growth not to be cheapened by "steeple-chasing for votes"; also, the
coming of the candidate causes jealousy and heart-burnings over matters
of precedence, reception and entertainment among the local celebrities,
and so he often leaves the party lukewarm where he found it
enthusiastic. Further, it uses up local campaign money that ought to be
spent in hiring workers at the polls, which is the polite phrase for
vote-buying as "retaining-fee" is the polite phrase for bribe.

I decided against the tour and for the highly expensive but always
admirable and profitable "pilgrimage plan".

Burbank's own home was at Rivington, and I should have had him visited
there, had it not been on a single-track branch-railway which could not
handle without danger and discomfort the scores of thousands we were
planning to carry to and from him almost daily. So, it was given out
that he purposed as far as possible to withdraw from the strife of the
campaign and to await the results in the dignified calm in which he
wished the voters to determine it. He took--after Woodruff had carefully
selected it--a "retired" house "in the country."

And it was in the open country. A farm garden adjoined it on the one
side, a wheat field on the other, a large orchard to the rear. The broad
meadow in front gave plenty of room for delegations visiting the
"standard bearer of the party of patriotism" in his "rural seclusion,